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Don't blame us, Rajasthan overdrew power: UP

July 31, 2012 22:47 IST

Even as Uttar Pradesh was pointedly blamed by the central government for being the culprit in triggering the grid collapse in several parts of India, top officials of the state flatly refuted the charge.

"We are being blamed for nothing. It is clearly recorded in the systems that UP did not overdraw anything beyond just 40 mega watt as against nearly 1,000 MW overdrawn by Rajasthan," clarified UP energy secretary and Power Corporation chairman Anil Kumar Gupta.

"It is just not possible that the grid would fail on account of our overdrawing a paltry 40 MW, which was the lowest in recent years. As far as we are concerned, we have found that it was the tripping of some lines owned and maintained by the central government run Power Grid Corporation that led to the grid collapse," he added.

Many services in Uttar Pradesh remained paralysed for hours until the power got restored around 6 pm. Initially, only essential services like trains and hospitals were restored. In Lucknow power supply was restored only as late as 9 pm. More than half the state was still without electricity until late night.

All electric traction trains came to a halt with the collapse of multiple grids across the country. While some of the important trains were made to switch to diesel engines, most trains had to be cancelled. As many as 36 trains came to a halt on the tracks in different parts of the state. Sure enough every train ran hours behind schedule causing untold hardships to passengers in the hot and humid weather.

Services in several major hospitals were badly affected on account of the nearly daylong breakdown. Other than life-saving services, routine services were completely obstructed.

Most cities in Uttar Pradesh remained dark, as even after the grid was restored around 6 pm, power supply could not be restored for several hours after that. "It takes time to recharge the generating machines. Therefore, restoration of normal power supply to the entire state could take up to 24 hours," the energy secretary clarified.

Even in Lucknow, supply was restored only to VIP areas including the chief minister's office and residence. Large parts of the state capital plunged into total darkness after sunset. What was worse that there was no official word on the estimated time that could take for return to normal.

This was the second major grid failure in north Indian in 36 hours.

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow